Police foil sarpanches' plan to gherao Assembly

Panchkula, March 17

Hundreds of sarpanches and their supporters, under the banner of the Haryana Sarpanches Association, held a massive protest on the Panchkula-Chandigarh border today after the police did not allow them to march towards the Haryana Assembly where the Budget session was in progress.

The district police had deployed a heavy police force to stop the protesters from moving towards Chandigarh. The protesters raised slogans and sat on a dharna on the main road, which continued for about three hours. The dharna was lifted after Deputy Commissioner Mahavir Kaushik met the leaders and asked them to end the dharna.

He told the protesters that he would convey their demands to the Chief Minister. He said a meeting of the association leaders with the CM would be organised later as the session was in progress.

Sarpanch association chief Ranbir Samain said they had given a five-day ultimatum to the government to accept their demands or they would be forced to hold protests across the state, giving a tough time to the government. He said the sarpanches would not budge until their demands were not accepted and were ready to continue their protest for longer periods.

Meanwhile, the sarpanches have got divided into two groups after the announcement made by the CM to increase the remuneration of panches and sarpanches in the state. While one group is standing with the government, the other, led by Ranbir Samain, is adamant about their demands and wants to gherao the Assembly in protest against the CM’s announcement.